July 9, 2006 Off to the airport, on to Mangalore in South India where we were met by Joe, our driver. “Who needs a driver?” we thought. “We’ve driven in Rome, Paris, London…. What’s the bid deal?” WRONG!!!! It’s a very, very big deal, especially in monsoon season. Monsoon is sort of an intermittent, on and off again sort of vertical tsunami. Sometimes it stops and sometimes it simply does not stop but when it rains, there is no moderation in the weather. None. And if it stops, and the semi paved roads are not roiling in red mud and water, the temperature immediately goes up to about a zillion steamy degrees. Come to think of it, before it stops it is pretty much the same, too. Like living inside a super-heated plastic bag with running water. I had never, ever experienced anything like that before. Bert had and he tolerates heat better than I do, anyway. But, I am convinced, the reason that I have survived so far is that our room here at the Mangalore Club, founded by the British in 1876) has air conditioning that works. It is a gracious, historic and well known club and we can see both the British and the Indian print of time and tradition here.
At lunch time, Dr. B. M. Hegde joined us. Exuding light and laughter, intensity and wisdom, Dr. Hegde, a Harvard trained cardiologist (who worked with Nobel Laureate there, is as passionate and knowledgeable an ally as you could wish. Having just written (his latest) book called
What Doctors Don’t Get to Study in Medical School, Dr. Hegde understands the dangers of conventional Western medicine better than most (because he understands conventional Western medicine better than most) and is a fearless, tireless and, here in India, treasured iconoclast and speaker of truth both to power and to the powerless. Bonding does not even begin to describe the phenomenon: there was not enough time to explore all the ways in which we share a world view.
Dinner at the Mangalore Club and then several days of email in their un-air conditioned, mosquito rich office. But I must tell you that the staff at this historic Club is welcoming, interested in our work, helpful and delightful in their warmth and enthusiasm!
Yours in health and freedom,
Rima E. Labow, MD
Medical Director
